$150m needed for flood relief: WFP

A soldier evacuates an elderly man through rising flood waters in Baseera, a village in the Muzaffargarh district. PHOTO: REUTERS

The World Food Programme on Wednesday said that $150 million are needed to provide food to the victims of flood in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Section 144 has been imposed in District Thatta amid flood to evacuate people to safer places.

Flood water is expected to pass through District Thatta on August 15 or 16. DCO Thatta imposed section 144 to evacuate 352 villages of Kacha area situated on both sides of the River Indus.

So far, 96 relief camps have been set up in the district. At least,  13,560 people have been shifted to relief camps.

Three dykes, Sojani, Manarki and Sonda have been declared very sensitive out of the 19 in the district.

The Pakistan Army, Navy, Coast Guard and other private organisations arranged 190 boats for evacuating people.

Situation at Guddu and Sukkur Barrages

Water level in Guddu barrage has decreased by 118,000 cusecs in the last 48 hours, while water level in Sukkur barrage remains at 1.13 million cusecs for the third day.

Water is heading toward Goth Khari following a breach in the Ghulam Dyke near Ali Wahan area of Sukkur.

Authorities have failed to keep the Rawaal Dyke intact and water has started overflowing, causing huge problems for the people of Sukkur, while Ghous Pur Indus Highway has been shut down following floods.

Rescue teams have evacuated 25 people from the Ghous Pur area, while others are still trapped. Moreover, a breach in the BS Feeder toward Deh Jamal village has swept away 25 people.

Flooding in Punjab

Thousands of people awaiting aid in Muzaffargarh have queued outside relief camps to acquire food amid devastating floods in the area.

Water from a breach in the Muzaffargarh canal near Nusratwala inundated Shah Jamal, while a flood torrent from River Indus also reached Shah Jamal, which will later move towards Bait Meer Hazara Khan and then enter Sindh.

Another flood torrent of 8,000 cusecs has moved towards Chashma Head, and is estimated to reach Muzaffargarh tomorrow.

Meanwhile, troops and irrigation officials are trying to save Muzaffargarh Town by plugging breaches in the Tulhairi branch canal.

Contagious diseases have also broken out in Mahmood Kot, Chowk Qureshi and Sanawan areas and thousands of people are believed to be infected, while no healthcare has been made available in the area as yet.

Dera Ghazi Khan in distress

A flood torrent of 700,000 cusecs of water is passing through Taunsa in the Dera Ghazi Khan District.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by the flood and are in dire need of help, while looting continues in the area.

Flood water has also severely damaged infrastructure in the DG Khan district and the Multan-DG Khan road has remained road closed for the last four days.

Moreover, petrol is not available in the district and the local administration is not taking any steps to rectify the situation.

More flood warnings

The Met Office issued a warning after predicting high-level flood at Kala Bagh and Chashma points of Indus River.

According to the Meteorological Office, 780,000 cusecs of water is expected at Kala Bagh point.

The Federal Flood Commission has predicted high level flood at Taunsa during in the next 24 hours, while a high flood is also expected at Kotri in the next two days.

Meanwhile, Bhakkar, Layyah, Muzaffargarh, DG Khan and Rajanpur are likely to get flooded.

Floods cause shortage of gas

Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) on Wednesday gave 50 million cubic feet of gas to Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) for industries in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

This came in the wake of the closure of Kandhkot and Qadirpur Gas Fields because of the floods.

The closure of the fields has resulted in a 500 million cubic feet gas shortfall, which has affected 7,000 industries running on gas in both Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Managing Director SNGPL Rashid Lone said it will take about 10 to 15 days to restore gas supply and that in the meantime SSGC will provide gas to SNGPL. He also said another 50 million cubic feet of gas will be provided to SNGPL tomorrow.

Power breakdown

Pepco on Wednesday said the current shortfall amounts to about 4,500 megawatts.

This shortfall includes the already-existing demand-supply gap and the suspension of gas to power plants.

Pepco said unscheduled loadshedding has resulted in about six to eight hours of loadshedding in urban areas and about 12 to 14 hours in rural areas. The company said loadshedding of this scale will continue till the gas supply is restored.

Another factor that has worsened the situation is the suspension of petrol to power plants. Parco has suspended its supply, while oil tankers are facing difficulty in supplying gas to power plants because of the floods.

Receding levels in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

Water level has decreased in the rivers of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa after the vast level of devastation in the province.

Relief activities in the flood-ravaged province continue but there is severe shortage of food and medicine.

Road links to Madin, Bahrain, Kabal and other areas of Swat remain suspended while the water is receding in the areas of Dera Ismail Khan and Nowshera.

According to the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), at least 23 helicopters of the Pakistan Army are busy in relief efforts in Swat, Kalaam, Bahrain, Maidan, Dir, Chakdara and DI Khan.

Chief Minister Amir Haider Hoti declared DI Khan and Tank districts calamity-hit and announced Rs300,000 for the family of every person killed in flood-related incidents.

Floods continue to kill in Balochistan

Fifty people have killed by floods in Kohlu, Loralai, Zhob, Jaffarabad, Nasirabd, Sibbi, Harnai and Lachi districts of Balochistan.

Also, thousands of houses, roads and bridges have been swept away by the deluge.

The chief minister of Balochistan has declared Naseerabad, Jaffarbabd, Sibbi, Kohlu and Barkhan as calamity-hit areas.

The army and the provincial and local administrations have accelerated relief activities, but the locals are not happy with the pace of the rescue work and protests have been reported from several flood-hit areas of the province.

US aid rises to $55 million

The United States announced an additional $20 million to help the flood victims.

The new aid has brought the amount of funds committed by Washington so far to $55 million.

Along with the aid US military helicopters have also been airlifting trapped survivors.

Senior State Department official Dan Feldman in announcing the new funds said that this is not an immediate humanitarian crisis and it will take months if not years to recover from this natural calamity.

Feldman said that since weather in Pakistan on Tuesday was good, US helicopters were able to fly and move about 100,000 pounds worth of humanitarian commodities and transported more than 700 Pakistanis stranded in the remote areas.